A charity boss has called for a rethink on CRB checks, arguing that they prevent ex-offenders from moving on with their lives and getting into employment.

Mark Johnson, founder of the charity User Voice and himself a former offender and drug user, wrote in the Guardian that: “A CRB check does nothing more than recite the wrongs someone once committed without saying what they've done right since. Employers, like most of the public, are media-educated about crime.”

He adds: “The offender has already been punished by incarceration, but society now continues to punish him for the rest of his life in slow instalments, simply by stigmatising him.”

He says many offenders could easily work without posing a risk to employers and that they should leave prison without a criminal record. When employers need to be informed by the CRB, Mark argues that employers should also get a “toolkit “on how to interpret the information.

He adds that “the best way to show the UK that it's time to stop discriminating against those with criminal records” is for the Government to lead by example and employ more ex-offenders.